More tourist patrol vans, staff trained in soft skills: Delhi Police’s PCR unit preps for G-20

A senior officer said: “Around 100 PCR personnel have already been given soft-skill training by the DTC to help them deal with tourists and assist them with any grievance pertaining to passport, visa or get them in touch with the respective embassy officer.”

Further, a tourist patrolling van will be at crucial heritage locations such as Red Fort, Qutub Minar and near the G-20 summit spot in Pragati Maidan. “Like any other PCR vehicle, two police personnel — two head constables or assistant sub-inspector-level officers — will be stationed inside the van and will wear jackets stating tourist police on them… they will keep tabs on movement of tourists,” said the officer.

Currently, Delhi has around 750 PCR vans and over 5,000 personnel attached to the unit. Around 50 all-women PCR vans have also been deployed across the city. “More body-worn cameras for the personnel are also being procured,” added the officer.

Several types of vehicles, including Prakhar anti-street crime vans and anti-terror Parakram vans, are attached to the unit.

Meanwhile, over a month after the PCR unit was separated from the district police, an officer said response timings have come down to 7-8 minutes from around 15 minutes for each call. He further said incident reports are now sent quickly to the control room for further action.

“Visibility of PCR vans has also increased on streets after becoming an independent unit again, as earlier, police officers were busy with district work rather than at PCR,” said the officer.

In 2021, former Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana had integrated 8,000 personnel from the PCR unit with district teams. Current police commissioner Sanjay Arora separated the two in February to make it “more transparent” and reduce response timings.

“The separation has come in line with G-20 preparations as staff has been briefed adequately about types of crime foreigners are victims of such as snatching, robbery… Such incidents, if any, will require effective handling by personnel,” added the officer.